+ Serena, Venus to meet in third round
+ Top seed and defending champion Nadal through in straight sets
+ Sexism row over shirt change code violation
+ Murray’s Slam return ended by Verdasco
Top results
— Serena Williams (USA x17) bt Carina Witthoeft (GER) 6-2, 6-2
— Venus Williams (USA x16) bt Camila Giorgi (ITA) 6-4, 7-5
— Rafael Nadal (ESP x1) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
— Fernando Verdasco (ESP x31) bt Andy Murray (GBR) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
— Sloane Stephens (USA x3) bt Anhelina Kalinina (UKR) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
— Juan Martín Del Potro (ARG x3) bt Denis Kudla (USA) 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4)
Sidelines
Cornet calms ‘revolution’ talk
— Alize Cornet said she was overwhelmed by the support she received when she was hit with a code violation for removing her shirt on court.
The incident caused a sexism row at the tournament as male players are free to change their shirts court side.
The players were supporting me and telling me that if I get fined, we would all be together and make a revolution and stuff. I was, like, ‘Calm down. I’m going to get the information first and then we see if we make a revolution or not,’ said the bemused French player.
He blocked me on Instagram!
— Daniil Medvedev knocked out 15th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the third round in the pair’s first meeting since they had to be separated at the net after the Russian beat the Greek in Miami this year.
Medvedev said there were no hard feelings but admitted to Russian media on Wednesday: He did block me on Instagram.
Tennis not Taylor-made
— Taylor Fritz made the third round of a major for the first time but the 21-year-old admitted that tennis left him cold when he was growing up.
I didn’t really love tennis when I was young. I played so many other sports, and I was just interested in a lot of other sports and different things, said the world number 74 who faces French Open runner-up Dominic Thiem for a place in the last 16.
Who’s saying what
Could I talk about my match?
— Venus Williams refuses to discuss the furore over the Alize Cornet shirt change ‘sexism’ row
You’re beating it up now. Any other questions about anything else?
— Venus also not interested in talking about a match-up with her sister Serena
It was two against one last time. This time, it should be more fair.
— Venus on meeting Serena in the final of the Australian Open in 2017 when her sister was pregnant with daughter Olympia.
Like on a different, when you travel, you’re in a whole different — I’m sorry, I have severe mom brain.
— Serena unable to find a phrase in her post-match news conference
